Selborne and Grey High end Nomads Festival campaigns on a high
Selborne College and Grey High School were the only unbeaten teams when the curtain came down on the Nomads Hockey Festival on Saturday afternoon after three days of entertaining hockey action at Maritzburg College.
The 2024 edition of the annual showcase saw St John’s College record their first win in the past two years at the festival with an upset defeat of an in-form Grey College on Friday. Jeppe High School for Boys, who dominated last year, drawing their first match before winning their remaining four, lost their first three this time around, before recording two wins.
Although they emerged with a spotless record, Grey High almost lost in their very first outing, falling 0-2 behind Maritzburg College before scoring three unanswered goals after halftime to claim a 3-2 victory. Later, on Thursday, they outplayed St John’s 4-1.
An early morning clash with Hilton College on Friday proved to be a serious examination, but Grey came away with a hard-fought 1-0 win. In the afternoon, they trampled King Edward VII School (KES) 6-0.
In their last match, against Pretoria Boys High, on Saturday, they were 2-1 victors.
Beynon, who was in charge of Collegiate Girls’ High School before making the switch to Grey, has enjoyed swift success with his team, which has now swept their opposition in back-to-back festivals, not dropping a single game in 10 over the course of consecutive weekends.
Despite their success, Beynon feels that his team is not yet where it should be: “We are at the early stages of our journey. We want to play an attacking brand of hockey and at times we were able to do that. Accuracy in transition comes with time together as a group,” Beynon told SuperSport Schools.
In the lead up to the 2024 hockey season, KJ Friend and his Selborne College team spent a lot of time working on retaining possession and being disciplined when dispossessed. Every now and then, he reminded his charges that if they kept the ball the rest would fall into place. That ideology was tested at the Tony Godding Festival, where Selborne went five for five.
“We didn’t play really tough opposition last weekend, so coming here this week and facing tougher teams, the emphasis was on sticking to our processes whatever the circumstance,” Friend said.
The plan worked. By sticking to those principles, Selborne controlled the pace and tempo of all of their encounters, which forced their opponents to adapt to the East London side’s style of play.
Central to Selborne’s success was their captain, Tre’ Gilbert. He found the back of the net every time his team stepped onto Pape’s Astro. His tally of six goals was the most by a Selborne player at Nomads, and it brought his total to 14 goals in the two festivals.
At Nomads, Selborne netted 11 times and conceded only three goals as they bagged another five wins from five matches, defeating KES, Pretoria Boys High, Jeppe, Maritzburg College and St John’s.
Selborne’s next assignment will be a tough one, too, at next week’s KES Easter Festival. And while Friend is keen to keep the unbeaten run going, he is not getting his head lost in the clouds.
“The important thing when you have a lot of matches like this is to not focus too far ahead. Take it one day at a time, one match at a time and one play at a time. Don’t think about the later, think about the present. Each game will be different, so you have to prepare accordingly,” he said.
Results
Grey High 2-1 Pretoria Boys High, KES 2-4 Wynberg Boys’ High, Hilton College 3-2 Grey College, Selborne College 2-1 St John’s College, Jeppe 1-0 Maritzburg College.
